Comments by "J Hacksb" (@jhacksb1399) on "Maura Healey on Trump's Immigration Plan" video.

  1. It is good that Gov. Maura Healey sent a general to deal with the illegal immigration crisis down at the southern border. It is only too bad she did not send an army with him. But the mission of Lt. General L. Scott Rice, Healey’s Emergency Assistance director, and his team was not to stem or stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. Their goal was to keep them out of Massachusetts. Otherwise, General Rice, former head of the Massachusetts National Guard, could have taken some troops of the 8,500 strong Massachusetts National Guard with him to help Texas guard the border as some other states have. Healey did call out 250 members of the Massachusetts National Guard a year ago to deal with the immigration crisis. But they were ordered to help the migrants already here at overcrowded hotels and shelters, not to keep they away. And those states that sent National Guard troops to help Texas Gov. Greg Abbott guard the border — like Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Oklahoma, Utah, North Dakota and others — are not even close to Massachusetts when it comes to doling out welfare benefits to illegal immigrants. Any migrant with half a brain would certainly choose Boston over Boise. You would too, considering the generous perks Massachusetts provides. Massachusetts is a magnet. It is now costing taxpayers $1 billion a year to care for illegal immigrants through its emergency shelter system, a system that is now overloaded. Apparently, Healey has had enough, even though she walks a fine line between supporting President Joe Biden and his open borders policy while dealing with the overflow that has consumed her time and agenda. Illegal immigrants along with immigrant crime have become a major issue across the country, including in Massachusetts. So far, Healey’s answer has been to blame Congress or former President Donald Trump, the man who closed the border, while praising Joe Biden, the man who opened it. And now she wants to persuade illegal immigrants not to come to Massachusetts simply by asking them to stay away rather than enforcing existing laws or changing rules and regulations that provide generous benefits to anyone who walk in the front door. Healey said it was important to tell the “folks” on the ground “that we have reached our capacity here.” That will not work because progressives bill Massachusetts as a “Right to Shelter” state that must provide aid to the homeless and the needy. That is only partly true. Under the so called Right to Shelter law, which is the 1983 Chapter 450 “Act Further Regulating Assistance to Certain Needy Persons,” the law specifically refers to actual residents of the state and not immigrants seeking benefits. It states that “any such person who enters the Commonwealth solely for the purposes of obtaining benefits under this chapter shall not be considered a resident.” It would take a stronger governor than Maura Healey to enforce that law when she can barely remove the “folks” — illegal immigrants — from sleeping at Logan Airport. When she does, others arrive. In lieu of troops, General Rice was accompanied by a five-member team of state bureaucrats who were charged with telling the illegal immigrant world that there was no longer room for them in Massachusetts. To that end they visited migrant shelters in Brownsville, San Antonio, McAllen and Hidalgo which, according to the Healey administration, are the most common points of entry for families who later come to Massachusetts. Their message was like a play on the old saying, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t come here.” Or they could have rewritten Dave Loggins’’ famous “Please Come to Boston” to “Please Don’t Come to Boston.” General Rice said it was important that immigrants were told about the lack of shelter space in Massachusetts “so that families can plan accordingly to make sure they have a safe place to go” — as long as it isn’t here. Republicans jumped ugly over the trip. MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale called it “a publicity stunt,” which it probably was. And nobody bought it. Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
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